Can I Interest You In Hanukkah?
by Isabel5
Summary: Puck/Rachel.  Rachel's alone on Christmas Eve.  Which isn't that big a deal considering she's Jewish and all.  Except...Rachel's alone on Christmas Eve.  ONE-SHOT


**Title:** Can I Interest You in Hanukkah?  
><strong>Author:<strong> bella8876 (on LJ & Tumblr)/Isabel5 on  
><strong>Count:<strong> 2162  
><strong>CharactersPairings:** Puck/Rachel  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> None  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Rachel's alone on Christmas Eve. Which isn't really that big a deal considering she'd Jewish and all. Except…Rachel's alone on Christmas Eve.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own much, certainly not Glee.  
><strong>AN:** Title comes from a song from "A Colbert Christmas". This is for the Tumblr Puckleberry Hanukkah. I hope everyone in the bubble had a great holiday season and this is just a small thank you for all the love and support you guys give me throughout the year.

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><p>Driving 10 miles an hour down a completely deserted street went against every bone in Puck's body. Yet he was currently resisting the urge to slam his foot on the gas pedal. Partly because he didn't feel like spending the evening digging his car out of a ditch, and partly because he didn't actually know if the road was deserted.<p>

The snow was falling so fast and so heavy at this point he could barely see a foot in front of his bumper. He was just assuming at this point there was no one else on the road. For one thing no one else would be stupid enough to venture out into this weather. For another, it was Christmas Eve.

Puck cursed as the wind suddenly got stronger and his grip tightened on the wheel. He spotted a haze of light out of the corner of his eye and he turned. Going through the neighborhood wasn't exactly a short cut but between the street lamps and the fact that pretty much every house was practically glowing from all the Christmas lights, the visibly was almost tripled.

He drove by so many houses with Santas and Rudolphs and snowmen and multicolored twinkle lights, so when he passed the only house on the block decked out in simple blue and white lights with a massive Star of David covered in glitter on the front lawn, he took notice. He knew immediately it was Rachel's house, but he couldn't understand why the lights were on. No one was supposed to be home. She should have been long gone by now.

_**::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**_

_**Yesterday….**_

_Puck checked his watch for the hundredth time, hoping his mom would get the hint but she ignored him yet again, continuing on in her conversation with Mrs. Lebowitz. He was supposed to meet Sam for a Call of Duty marathon in less than thirty minutes. And she knew that because he'd told her repeatedly when she insisted that he come to Dani's stupid Christmas recital with her. _

_He looked around the Dance studio and sighed. He stopped when his eyes landed on Rachel standing next to his sister who was talking a mile a minute. Only she wasn't looking at Dani, she was looking straight at him. Or he thought she was anyway. It was hard to tell with all the winking and jerking of her head that was going on. _

_Puck frowned and walked over to the two of them. "Noah!" Rachel said in relief when he approached. _

_"Hey," Puck said. "You ok? It looked like you were having some kind of seizure or something." _

"_I'm fine," Rachel said, that tone in her voice that Puck knew meant she was lying. "I'm just happy to see you!" she reached forward suddenly, catching him off guard and throwing her arms around his shoulders as she pulled him in for a hug. "Look, I love your sister, I really do but if I don't leave here in the next ten minutes I'll miss my flight and I still have to change." She whispered frantically in his ear before pulling away and pasting on a huge fake smile. _

"_Hey Dani, I need to talk to Rachel about some stuff for Glee ok, why don't you go ask mom if we can stop for Ice cream on the way home." _

"_Ok!" Dani said excitedly skipping away toward their mom. _

"_Ice cream Noah? Really?" Rachel asked, "Putting aside how bad dairy is for your vocal chords, it's been snowing for three days straight. How can you possibly eat ice cream right now?" _

"_Because it's good," Puck shrugged. "Also it got you away from my sister." _

"_You're right, it did." Rachel smiled at him. "Thank you. Dad and Daddy went on ahead to my Grandma's house in Portland but I had to stay behind. I'd already committed to helping out with the recital. And I can't miss this flight. It's the last one out tonight and if I miss it there's no way I'll be able to get another one in time." _

"_In time for what?" Puck asked._

"_Christmas Eve" Rachel said. _

_He looked at her for a second confused, opened his mouth and then closed it again before finally settling on what to say. "You're Jewish remember." _

_Rachel rolled her eyes as she held out her coat to Puck. "Yes, Daddy is Jewish and I was raised Jewish but Dad was raised Catholic." _

"_Really?" Puck asked holding out the jacket so she could pull it on. _

"_He's not exactly practicing these days. I mean when your own religion doesn't accept you just because of who you love, it doesn't exactly make you want to show up for Sunday morning services you know." Puck nodded, she made a good point there. _

"_When I was born they agreed to raise me Jewish but Dad said a lot of his best Childhood memories were of Christmas time. The tree and the decorations and the food and waking up early Christmas morning to run downstairs and see what Santa brought you. Daddy figured since those things weren't necessarily religious he had no problem incorporating them into his Hanukkah traditions. So every year for seven days of Hanukkah we lit the menorah and we sang the blessing and made latkes, but on Christmas Eve we'd watch Miracle on 34__th__ Street and White Christmas and drink hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and put Sugar cookies out for Santa. It's a Berry family tradition." She smiled at the thought._

"_Wait you mean to tell me you get the best parts of Hanukkah and Christmas?" Rachel nodded. "And Moses is totally ok with this?" Puck balked at her._

"_I don't particularly see what Moses has to do with anything. Do you even pay attention in Temple?" Rachel's brow furrowed in confusion. "But we figured as long as we didn't sing happy birthday to the Baby Jesus there wasn't really any harm done." _

_::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_

Puck stopped at the stop sign and pulled out his phone, sending Rachel a quick text. _Miss your flight?_

He sat at the stop sign waiting for her response because no way was he even going to attempt texting while driving in this mess. His phone beeped less than a minute later. _Airports closed due to snow. No flights in or out for the foreseeable future._

Puck could practically feel her frowning as he typed that. It didn't help that it was punctuated with six frowny faces. "This is not your problem," he said out loud as he stared down at her text message before typing a short reply and slipping the phone back in his pocket.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Rachel smiled as Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen twirled around on the screen to _The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing. _The ringing of the doorbell startled her so much she almost spilt her steaming vegan hot chocolate all over her in surprise. She set the mug down gently on the coffee table and paused the moving before padding slowly to the door.

She had no idea who it could possibly be. Her father's were still in Portland, they had to be. If she couldn't get a flight out no way they managed to get one in.

She hadn't heard anything from her friends all day, not a single "Happy Holiday" or "Merry Christmas". She knew they were likely with their families and yeah she was Jewish, but that was no excuse for bad manners. The last person she expected to see however was Noah and Dani Puckerman. The last she'd heard from his was a very curt, "That sucks" text in response to her missing her flight. And that had been almost an hour ago.

"I've got Chinese," he said dumbly holding up the large bag of take-out in his hand.

"Why?" Rachel said before she could stop herself.

"Because it's Christmas Eve," Puck said matter of factly as he handed the bag of food to Dani and pushed her into the house. "The plates are in the cabinet above the sing and wash your hands before you touch any food."

"I don't…" Rachel stuttered as Dani just walked past her and into the kitchen.

"Don't worry, all your stuff is totally vegan," he said stepping into the house and closing the door behind him. "I watched them make it. Made sure they used separate pans and everything."

Rachel momentarily forgot about her confusion and smiled softly at him. "You did?"

"Yeah, no way am I spending the night holding your hair while you puke your guts out," Puck said. "Again."

Rachel cringed at the memory of the last time Finn had been in charge of dinner before they'd broken up. Once again he'd forgotten Rachel was a vegan and even though she'd only consumed a small amount of meat, she'd been sick for almost two whole days.

"While I appreciate the sentiment, I'm still slightly confused about why you're here." Rachel followed Puck as he walked into the kitchen.

"Well, mom's working a double tonight. She does it every year. She gets time and a half on top of holiday pay and no one else ever wants to do it. So we were alone and you were alone and I figured we'd show you how Jews normally do Christmas Eve." He dropped another bag on her kitchen counter and turned to where Dani was stretching, trying to reach the plates that were just a bit too high up for her.

"And that includes Chinese food and," she pulled a few DVD's from the bag, "And Star Wars?"

"It's an age old Hanukkah tradition," Puck said, his tone slightly offended.

"It is not!" Dani said. "You just made it up."

"No I didn't. It's in the Torah," Puck told her.

"Is not," Dani rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, and do you read Hebrew?" Puck asked her and Dani shook her head no. "Didn't think so, so just be quiet and go put the movie in." He shoved the DVD's into her hand and gently pushed her out of the kitchen.

"She is eventually going to learn to read Hebrew you know," Rachel smirked Puck pulled silverware from the drawer and she grabbed the bag of food.

"Yeah but I figure I can milk it a few more years until then." Puck shrugged.

"Hurry up, we can't eat until we light the candles and sing the blessing!" Dani screamed and Puck rolled his eyes as he grabbed the plates and silverware and carried them into the living room.

Rachel still wasn't sure what exactly Puck was doing there but she didn't actually relish the idea of spending Christmas Eve alone. So she grabbed the bag of food and followed setting.

"Rachel you'll sing the blessings right?" Dani asked grabbing her arm and dragging her to the window where the Menorah was sitting. "Normally Noah does it but he said once you have the most beautiful voice he'd ever heard."

Rachel blushed and looked over at Puck who was pretending to be busy messing with his lighter. "I would be honored." Rachel said turning her attention back to Dani who smiled brightly.

Puck lit the candles, much to Dani's annoyance, and Rachel couldn't help but sneak glances at him as she sang the blessings. The candlelight flickered across his face and Rachel suddenly had the feeling she was just now seeing him, really truly seeing him for the first time. And she liked what she saw.

He must have felt her looking and turned, catching her gaze and holding it as she held the last note. When the blessings were sung and the candles lit he didn't break her gaze, simply stared right back at her, a small smile lifting up the corner of his lips.

"Can you teach me to sing like that?" Dani asked, breaking Rachel out of whatever spell she was under and she jerked her eyes away from Puck's and down to his sister's.

"Of course honey," Rachel gently ruffled the top of her hair and Dani beamed up at her.

"Go wash up for dinner," Puck said and Dani groaned but complied, walking back toward the kitchen.

"Thank you," Rachel said turning back to the Menorah. She hadn't planned on lighting it tonight. It didn't feel right without her dad's there, but now she was very glad she'd done it. "I really appreciate this." Rachel said. "All of this."

"It's…whatever you know." Puck shrugged. "Don't make a big deal out of it."

Rachel just smiled and turned back to him. "You know what? I think you would."

"I would what?" Puck frowned.

"I think you _would_ spend the night holding my hair back while I puked my guts out. Again." Rachel said reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. And as she walked over to the couch and sat down next to Dani and began serving up the Chinese food, Puck couldn't help but think yeah, he probably would.


End file.
